Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Frenchadj.

1.
[late 16C–mid-18C] in combs. meaning syphilis (see also below).

2.
[late 16C+] a racial stereotype used in various contexts; the Anglo-Saxon belief in ‘gay Paree’ and its supposedly sex-obsessed denizens has long equated ‘French’ with sexy or, pej., pornographic and ‘dirty’.

French walk
(n.)
[a pun on Frog n. (2) + SE walk; unwelcome or obstreperous drinkers would be grasped by a couple of bouncers, held up with all four limbs spread out (like a frog) and tossed into the street]

[late 19C] (US) the posture assumed by those being thrown bodily out of a saloon.

Frenchwoman
(n.)
[fig. use of French to mean strange, mysterious]

[1920s+] (W.I.) a fortune-teller.

In phrases

take a French
(v.)

[late 19C] (US) to wager, to take a bet.

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